Lady Bearcats win regional; HHS boys finish second

Saturday

May 8, 2010 at 5:59 PM

From staff reports

CHEROKEE -- The Hendersonville Lady Bearcats earned the 1-A West Regional girls track and field title Saturday at Cherokee, thanks to a solid team performance that included four first-place finishes, including two by Hailey Cook in the opening field events.Cook captured titles in the shot put with a toss of 35 feet, 1 inch, and in the discus with a mark of 122 feet, 6 inches.Later in the day, Brooks Walz raced to a first-place finish in the 300 hurdles with a time of 50.12, and Kristen Stout earned the title in the 1600 run with a time of 5:32.21, a good five seconds ahead of her closest competitor. The Lady Bearcats ended the day barely missing another first-place finish in the 1600 relay. Swain County anchor Chelsea Treadway edged Stout at the line, giving the Lady Maroon Devils the 1600 relay title with a time of 4:24.14, just .07 seconds ahead of Hendersonville's time of 4:24.21.The top four finishers in each event earned a spot in Friday's 1-A state championship meet, which will be held at North Carolina A&T.The Lady Bearcats finished the day with 129.5 points, and Murphy was runner up with 94. Robbinsville was not far behind in third with 84 points.In the boys meet, Robbinsville took the team title with 168 points, just 34 ahead of Hendersonville, the defending 1-A state champion. Murphy was third with 90.5 points, Hayesville was fourth with 90, and Swain County rounded out the top five with 53 points. The Bearcats got two first-place finishes from Thomas O'Connell in the 1600 run with a time of 4:47.27 and the 800 run with a time of 2:02.90. Other first-place finishes were by Richmond Felton in the long jump with a leap of 21-1, Lucus Freeman in the triple jump with a leap of 42-1, the 3200 relay team with a time of 8:29.9 and Daniel Orr in the 100 dash with a time of 11.66.